Gaming machines, such as slot machines, video poker machines, and the like, have been a cornerstone of the gaming industry for several years. Generally, the popularity of such machines with players is dependent on the likelihood (or perceived likelihood) of winning money at the machine and the intrinsic entertainment value of the machine relative to other available gaming options. Where the available gaming options include a number of competing machines and the expectation of winning each machine is roughly the same (or believed to be the same), players are most likely to be attracted to the most entertaining and exciting of the machines.
Consequently, shrewd operators strive to employ the most entertaining and exciting machines available because such machines attract frequent play and, hence, increase profitability to the operator. In the competitive gaming machine industry, there is a continuing need for gaming machine manufacturers to continuously develop new games and improved gaming enhancements that will attract frequent play through enhanced entertainment value to the player.
One concept that has been successfully employed to enhance the entertainment value of a game is that of a “bonus” game which may be played in conjunction with a “basic” game. The bonus game may comprise any type of game, either similar to or completely different from the basic game, and is entered upon the occurrence of a selected event or outcome of the basic game. Such a bonus game produces a significantly higher level of player excitement than the basic game because it provides a greater expectation of winning than the basic game.
Another concept that has been employed is the use of a progressive jackpot. In the gaming industry, a “progressive” involves collecting coin-in data from participating gaming device(s) (e.g., slot machines), contributing a percentage of that coin-in data to a jackpot amount, and awarding that jackpot amount to a player upon the occurrence of a certain jackpot-won event. The percentage of the coin-in is determined prior to any result being achieved and is independent of any result. A jackpot-won event typically occurs when a “progressive winning position” is achieved at a participating gaming device. If the gaming device is a slot machine, a progressive winning position may, for example, correspond to alignment of progressive jackpot reel symbols along a certain payline. The initial progressive jackpot is a predetermined minimum amount. That jackpot amount, however, progressively increases as players continue to play the gaming machine without winning the jackpot. Further, when several gaming machines are linked together such that several players at several gaming machines compete for the same jackpot, the jackpot progressively increases at a such faster rate, which leads to further player excitement.
In addition to the features described above, some current wagering games allow players to immediately parlay their winnings from a previous game. Typically, such wagering games have the limitation that the players must wager all of their prior winnings to take advantage of the parlay feature. Additionally, these wagering games also require that the players must wager all of their prior winnings in a wagering game that is played immediately after receiving the winnings (e.g., a double-or-nothing wagering feature after the player has achieved a winning combination). Furthermore, to date, these parlay features have been used with wagering games such as “Video Blackjack” and have not been used with slot machines. Because slot machines typically have a maximum wager amount that can be placed for each payline of the wagering game, a player cannot place a wager that exceeds the maximum payline bet.
The present invention is intended to overcome the above-mentioned limitations by providing a gaming machine having an enhanced parlay feature that offers a player more flexibility and control over his or her wagering options and thus increases the level of excitement and anticipation associated with playing wagering games at gaming terminals, particularly slot machines.